Score sets Ode of Remembrance to music

Imagine the moving words of the Ode: "They shall grow not old ... " set to soaring organ music and performed by a vast choir.

This is part of the Mass for the Fallen, a new body of church music commissioned for the Anzac centenary by Melbourne philanthropists Allan and Maria Myers.

It was composed by Sydney Catholic priest Christopher Willcock, a master musician who studied under composer Peter Sculthorpe before joining the Jesuits order in 1969.

This was launched at the Australian War Memorial on Friday and premiers at the National Anzac Day mass at St Christopher's Cathedral Canberra on Anzac Day morning. It will also be performed at services around Australia.

Fr Willcock said his brief was to compose a setting that could be sung and played by parishes and communities of average ability and learnt after a couple of hearings or rehearsals.

And hopefully it will have sufficient appeal to endure beyond the Anzac centenary.

"That's the tricky part - to write something that was simple enough to be used but not so simple that it would be thrown away next week. That was the hardest thing. I have no idea - time will tell. I have done my best," he told reporters.